The Galaxy S3 was Android’s most popular camera in 2014

The two-year old Samsung Galaxy S3 was the most popular Android phone for photography in 2014, according to stats released by the internet’s leading photo-sharing website Flickr.

Shots from the S3 made up 1.2% of all smartphone photos uploaded to Flickr last year, followed closely by the newer Galaxy S5, which contributed 1.1%.

The HTC One was the only other handset to make it into the year’s top 10 list, although the stats don’t make it clear whether this was the original One specifically, of if it includes the M8. Either way, 0.7% of uploads came from the One.

Inevitably the list is dominated by Apple products, with five iPhone models and two iPads completing the list.

However, the stats do also highlight the difficulties in making like-for-like comparisons between iOS and Android devices. While individual Android devices struggled to make any real inroads in the stats when compared to individual iOS devices, the data shows how Android usage as a whole grew by around 20% over the year.

The year began with iOS holding around a 60% share of usage on the site, with around around 32% Android and the rest Windows Phone (Nokia).

By the end of the year the share for iOS had plummeted to below 40%, Windows Phone to below 3%, and Android now accounting for around 60% of all image uploads.

Samsung accounts for more than 35% in total on its own (and a 5.6% share of all camera usage), with HTC, Motorola and LG also making an impact. Sony, which has begun to place a lot of emphasis on the cameras in its Xperia smartphones, is nowhere to be seen, despite the popularity of its products in other segments, especially mirrorless cameras.

Of course, this could change in the coming months. The real-time stats on Flickr’s Camera Finder currently list the Xperia Z1 and Z as being Sony’s most popular cameras, and place Samsung’s Galaxy S4 as the third most popular camera overall.